NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Amazon.com Inc. reported its second-ever quarterly net profit, buoyed by growing holiday sales in the last three months of 2002, the largest online retailer said Thursday.

Also after the bell Thursday, JDS Uniphase Corp. said that revenue from its fiber-optic equipment dropped for the eighth straight quarter, reporting a loss much greater than analysts had expected.

Earlier Thursday, AT&T said its loss from continuing operations widened during the fourth quarter, but said its profit, excluding one-time items, met analysts' estimates for the period. However, the nation's biggest long-distance telephone company warned that it does not see an improvement in demand soon.

Also, McDonald's reported its first net loss as a public company, although operating profits in the quarter met Wall Street estimates, and Caterpillar reported an 83 percent jump in fourth-quarter profits, soundly beating analysts' forecasts.

Amgen Amazon.com Applied Micro Circuits

Broadcom Corning Flextronics JDS Uniphase

Nortel Starbucks VeriSign

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SEATTLE (Reuters) -- Amazon.com Inc. reported its second-ever quarterly net profit, buoyed by growing holiday sales in the last three months of 2002.

The Seattle-based Web seller of books, music, electronics and other goods reported a fourth-quarter net profit of $3 million, or 1 cent per share, compared with a net profit of $5 million, or 1 cent per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $1.43 billion from $1.12 billion a year earlier. Analysts had forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $1.39 billion. (Full story)

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OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- JDS Uniphase Corp. said that revenue from its fiber-optic equipment dropped for the eighth straight quarter, but its second-quarter loss shrank as the company continued to squeeze costs.

JDS, the world's largest supplier of fiber-optic parts, reported a loss of $215 million, or 15 cents a share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31.

Excluding one-time charges, JDS posted a loss of $185 million, or 13 cents per share.

On average, 18 analysts had expected the Ottawa, Canada- and San Jose-based company to report an adjusted loss of 5 cents per share, according to research firm First Call. The mean revenue estimate from 13 analysts was $152.5 million. (Full story)

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SEATTLE (Reuters) -- Starbucks Corp. (SBUX: Research, Estimates), the world's largest specialty coffee retailer, posted higher first quarter earnings, fueled by strong holiday sales, and raised its forecast for full-year earnings.

The Seattle-based coffee brewer earned $80 million in its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 29, or 20 cents per share, compared with $68.4 million, or 17 cents a share in the year-earlier quarter.

Analysts polled by research firm Multex had projected on average that Starbucks would earn 18 cents per share.

Starbucks raised its fiscal year 2003 earnings per share target to between 67 and 68 cents, up from 65 to 66 cents previously.

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (Reuters) -- The provider of Internet authentication and security services narrowed its quarterly net loss on lower revenues.

VeriSign (VRSN: Research, Estimates) reported a net loss of $39.4 million, or 17 cents per share, for the fourth quarter, compared with a net loss of $401.1 million, or $1.91 per share, a year earlier.

Wall Street had expected the company to post a profit of 14 cents a share, excluding items, according to First Call.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- The communications chipmaker will return to pro forma profitability in the current quarter.

For the fourth quarter, Broadcom had a pro forma loss excluding charges of $6.6 million, or 2 cents per share.

Analysts had expected the company to report a pro-forma profit of 1 cent per share in the current quarter, with a range of estimates from a loss of 1 cent to a profit of 3 cents.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Amgen (AMGN: Research, Estimates), the world's largest biotechnology company, said its fourth-quarter profit nearly tripled amid strong sales of its anemia and immunity-boosting drugs.

The Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company reported net income of $456.4 million, or 34 cents a share, compared with $163 million, or 15 cents a share, a year earlier, when it recorded charges of $243 million for terminating drug-development deals and writing off inventory.

Excluding one-time charges, Amgen's earnings per share rose 17 percent to 35 cents from 30 cents in the year-ago quarter, meeting the average estimate from First Call.

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BRAMPTON, Ontario (Reuters) -- Nortel Networks Corp. reported its twelfth straight quarterly loss on declining sales of its telecommunications equipment, but confirmed it planned for pro-forma profitability by the second quarter of 2003.

Nortel, which is cutting jobs, plants and unprofitable product lines to lower costs, posted a net loss of $248 million, or 6 cents per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31. That is an improvement over the year-ago quarter, when it posted a loss of $1.8 billion, or 57 cents a share.

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SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Reuters) -- Communications chip maker Applied Micro Circuits Corp. (AMCC: Research, Estimates) posted a narrower third-quarter net loss from a year ago as the semiconductor industry reels from its worst-ever downturn.

The company reported a net loss for the quarter of $39.1 million, or 13 cents a share, compared with a loss of $81.3 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding such one-time items as restructuring costs, amortization of intangibles and stock compensation charges, the company would have recorded a loss per share of 5 cents, compared with a loss of 4 cents a year earlier.

On that basis, analysts had on average forecast the company would post a loss of 5 cents a share, in a range between a loss of 4 and 5 cents, on revenue of $22.4 million, according to First Call.

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CORNING, N.Y. (Reuters) -- Corning Inc. (GLW: Research, Estimates), the world's largest maker of fiber-optic cable, posted a net loss amid the spending slowdown in the telecommunications sector.

The Corning, New York-based company reported a net loss of $709 million, or 60 cents a share, compared with a loss of $656 million, or 69 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -- Contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics International Ltd. (FLEX: Research, Estimates) posted a quarterly net loss in a harsh market for the technology products it makes for other companies.

Flextronics, which like other contract manufacturers has been hit hard by the slow U.S economy and slump in technology spending, said its fiscal third-quarter net loss was $6.5 million, or 1 cent a share, compared with net earnings of $82 million, or 16 cents a share a year earlier.

Singapore-based Flextronics, which competes with Solectron Corp. and Sanmina-SCI Corp., said revenues in the December-ended quarter were $3.85 billion, compared with $3.45 billion a year earlier.